Tail wagging the dog?
There was a story on NPR describing a study about asymmetrical tail wagging of dogs. In 2007 Dr. Vallortigara found that a dogs tend to wag their tail to the right when they see something friendly and wag to the left when something is threatening. In 2011 Artellea et al, used a robotic dog to see how dogs would respond to a tail wagging left or right, i.e., does the tail wagging communicate fun or danger? When dogs saw the robot tail wag left, they approached without stopping. When they saw it wag to the right, they were more cautious and stopped frequently as they approached. Dr. Vallortigara followed up his previous study, this time using a video of a dog, either wagging left or right. A group of dogs watching the video had vests, which recorded their heart rate. As expected, the heart rate was normal when the tail was wagging to the right in the video and the heart rate increased (a sign of agitation) when the tail in the video was wagging to the left. The next question is how can we use this information. It should be noted how each study builds on the previous study. That’s how science works.
The image below, from Quaranta et al, 2007, shows the angle/method for determining a left or right bias tail wag. In A the tail is wagging right and in B the tail is wagging left, i.e. left and right determinations were with respect to the dog, not the observer.
EDIT for clarity.
The Tail’s The Tell: Dog Wags Can Mean Friend Or Foe
http://goo.gl/AiHW3T via NPR
Asymmetric tail-wagging responses by dogs to different emotive stimuli
A. Quaranta, M. Siniscalchi and G. Vallortigara
Current Biology, Volume 17, Issue 6, R199-R201, 20 March 2007
Behavioural responses of dogs to asymmetrical tail wagging of a robotic dog replica
K. A. Artellea, L. K. Dumoulina & T. E. Reimchena
Laterality. 2011 Mar;16(2):129-35. 2010 Jan 19.
Seeing Left- or Right-Asymmetric Tail Wagging Produces Different Emotional Responses in Dogs
M. Siniscalchi, R. Lusito, G. Vallortigara, A. Quaranta
Current Biology, 31 October 2013
#ScienceEveryday #FidoFriday
November 2, 2013
I will do some field work 🙂
November 2, 2013
Peter Lindelauf maybe Luna was trying to tell you there was a bear around the corner. I’ll have to watch Ana more carefully too. Mara Rose let me know what Izzy is telling you.
November 2, 2013
Oh god!! Was it my left, or their left….
November 2, 2013
I wonder if there are left handed dogs and if they reverse that (and get into endless trouble)?
And yeah, who’s right, mine or the dog’s?
November 2, 2013
Cindy Brown its always from the perspective of the dog (subject) in science unless specifies otherwise.
November 2, 2013
Izzy update: Definitely a wag to the right when she is competing with my laptop for attention :-). At other times, more symetrical.
No wag to the left noted.
November 2, 2013
Beau wags his tail in a circle! what does that mean Chad Haney ?
November 2, 2013
More Left-brain Right-brain action in nature, great experiment though
November 2, 2013
I edited the post. The left/right determination is with respect to the dog, not the observer. Thanks for the update Mara Rose
mary Zeman I bet Beau is neutral so he’s wagging in a circle.
November 2, 2013
There are definately other clues Thex Dar Don’t worry my dog won’t bite or like. OK, maybe a nibble.
November 2, 2013
In the BBC version of this story they also said…
And in another research paper from the University of Victoria in Canada, he said: “Dogs were more likely to approach a robot dog when its ‘tail’ was made to wag left rather than right, rather than becoming anxious – the opposite way around to the [Italian] study.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24746107
November 2, 2013
You are right Kevin Clift I thought I had made note of the difference as it was mentioned in the NPR piece. That’s what happens when I post late at night. Thanks. There is speculation that the fact that it was robotic, played a role.
November 2, 2013
Ever since I read the NPR story, I’ve been watching my dog’s tail wagging. He most frequently does full-sweep wags, but if we baby-talk to him, we can consistently elicit a right-wag. =)
November 3, 2013
Heh nice one Chad Haney 🙂 I did read in the original research they also looked at the head movement of the approaching dog…. turning to the right meant all good, and to the left seemed to be not so good.
At least that’s what I remember.
November 5, 2013
L McGarity I think they would be excluded from this research.